Ask-A-Linguist Message Details

Subject:

Regional Accent Revival Initiatives

Question:

Dear Ask-A-Linguist Panelists,
A friend and I were discussing how regional accents are becoming
less and less common throughout the U.S. We noticed the Tidewater
Accent, once prevalent throughout coastal Maryland and Virginia, is
now nearly completely extinct with the exception of older speakers.
We also noticed this patter in a number of other areas such as
Boston, New York, and Baltimore. Baltimore no longer feels for lack
of a better term like a "southern" city.
We mused over the idea of finding a way to revive such accents once
more, particularly among younger generations, to continue the culture
and history that goes with those dialects and accents. Do you know
of any such attempts at revival? Or better yet, how would one most
effectively accomplish such a task? Purely hypothetical of course.
Thanks, WG

Reply:

The great dialect surveys of the late 19th and earlier 20th century were in part motivated by a desire to preserve dialects that were 'disappearing' because of compulsory education. So this is not something new.
The fact is that language and culture both change. They are not fixed forever.
What you do find hapening, deliberately, is an antiquarian approach, which leads to people writing 'dialect poetry' and stories (often jokes) in a literary dialect that they do not naturally speak. In the UK there are many organisations that support this, with clubs, magazines, performances, and even lessons.
I don't think there is as much of this in the US as there is in England, so maybe that is the way to go. You might want to have a look at the Yorkshire magazine, the Dalesman, which publishes dialect poetry. You can also google 'dialect poetry' -- this should get you some hits.
In studies I have done of online communication, I found that writers from many places (such as UK, Jamaica and Singapore) will mix a little bit of dialect in with Standard English, often at the end of their postings. The effect is usually one of solidarity and jokiness. I did not find this to happen in quite the same way in the US. Do have a look at how it works in the UK and Jamaica!
Anthea